Pop the rice into a large heavy-based saucepan, pour over 700ml pints water and sprinkle in a good shake of salt. Cover and bring to the boil, then remove the lid and allow all the water to be absorbed – this should take about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover again and allow to steam dry.

Melt half the butter with the oil in a large frying pan. Stir in the curry paste or powder and cook until you start to smell the wonderful aromas.

Now add the onion and cook until softened and beginning to brown

Once the rice is cooked add the curry and onion mixture and quickly stir to make sure all the buttery juices are absorbed and the rice is heated through. Now mix in the salmon, eggs, asparagus and lime juice.

Stir gently, add the herbs along with cubes of the remaining butter and serve in warm bowls.

Heat half of the oil in a large pan. Add the chicken, grind over some black pepper, and fry, turning frequently, until lightly browned all over. Remove from the pan and keep warm.

Add a little more oil to the pan, then fry the chorizo until crispy, add to the warming plate with the chicken.

Add the onions, garlic, celery and chilli and cook for five minutes in the juices left over. Add a splash of red wine and simmer until reduced by half.

Add the can of chopped tomatoes to the pan with the vegetables, stir and bring to the boil. Cook for five minutes, then add the stock and bring back to the boil.

Add the browned chicken, the cannellini beans and the crisp chorizo and half the chopped coriander – simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is completely cooked through – no lid. Season, to taste, with a tiny bit of salt if needed and a little more ground black pepper.

Sprinkle with remaining chopped coriander and serve with crusty bread.

This went down well last night and was hoovered up very happily by the family.

Like this:

I make no excuses for posting something so simple – yet this is ultimately the…yes…ultimate fast food in my humble opinion. It is all down to getting some decent lamb cutlets – add them to a lightly oiled warmed griddle pan. Pop under a hot grill for 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium rare – you need them pink in the middle but crispy outside.

Remove from the grill, grind over some sea salt and then flitter a handful of chopped coriander over them plus a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

I ate them today for lunch with just a few slices of warm baguette.

Tis perfection on a plate. The Spanish name for them makes them sound even more romantic…they are nevertheless scrumptious to nibble on however named.

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As you know, I have been experimenting with fish cakes recently, and last Friday I went for a mix of fresh salmon and haddock. The recipe is the same as the one from May 5th but there I used salmon and cod – the haddock gave the cakes a tad more flavour to my taste – and this time I also added a small bunch of finely chopped coriander leaves and 6 finely sliced sun dried tomatoes to the fish mix.

The result was even better than the one on the 5th! I also made 2 smaller ones each, rather than last time one large fishcake each. I again served them on the bed of salsa – see recipe from the 5th again, and Jersey Royal new potatoes. Plus a salad of peppery leaves and grated beetroot.

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Last night’s supper was easy and phenomenally tasty. Salmon, lime and coriander were made for each other. My photo does not do it justice and the plate I was going to use had been whisked away before I could snap it – so this one had to do!

I seasoned the salmon steaks with salt and pepper, heated 2 tbsps of olive oil and 15 gms of butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. I cooked them on the skin side for 5/6 minutes and 4 then on the flesh side. You could use skinned salmon steaks – in which case just do 4 minutes per side.

For the sauce mix 110 gm mayo with a small handful of chopped coriander, the zest of a lime and juice of half a lime. Mix well.

I served it simply with steamed broccoli spears and pearl maris piper potatoes in butter.

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Often the simplest things in life are the most beautiful. The things we take for granted – golden leaves, a sparrow’s song, ripening berries peeping through hedgerows , snow drops peeking out from under the soil where they have slept peacefully during the dark drear months of winter.

And so it is with food – often food stuffs we overlook or turn our nose up at can provide delectable surprises. Inexpensive and warming when the wet weather whirls its way through our world.

Take the humble tin of corned beef. I loathed it as a child – all my sandwiches on school trips seemed to contain nothing else but slabs of it and I found it hard to swallow. I remember my Granddad telling me tales of WW1 and life in the trenches when frequently the only dish on offer was tinned ‘bully beef’ as he called it. Sounded grim!

The stuff sold in cans gets its name from the corns, or grains of salt, that are used to preserve it. The beef is chopped up and preserved with salt – sometimes it was brine – and canned with beef fat and jelly. When I was young there seemed to be too much of the jelly for my liking! Today most of the corned beef in cans comes from Uruguay or Brazil.

It was first mentioned in 1621 in a recipe of one Robert Burton in his ‘Anatomy of Melancholy‘ -clearly he too had been getting corned beef sandwiches too often in his packed lunch!

Anyway, he writes ‘ Beef…corned, young of an Ox.’ He also mentions that you could get corned pork . Corned beef in many parts of the world refers to salt beef – a wonderful cut from the brisket – we used to eat a lot of it when we lived in New Zealand. Corned beef in the UK means the stuff that comes in those trade mark rectangular cans with the pesky winding key opener.

The Irish eat a lot of it apparently, especially on St Patrick’s Day – a combination of corned beef heated through with cooked cabbage. And of course there is the traditional corned beef hash which improved my opinion of the stuff when my folks made this stew in my early teens. Great with lashings of brown sauce. Corned beef also gets used in lots of pasties sold in the chains of high street bakers.

But, my favourite way of eating it – and I have made this for many a long year, going back to my thrifty student days, is a Corned Beef Chilli.

I cannot explain how good this dish is – and I know some folk out there will be grimacing or even switching to another blog at this point – which is a pity – because, as I said to begin with – the simplest and often the cheapest dishes are the best. Right, assuming you are all still with me….! The recipe!

In a frying pan, heat some olive oil and pan fry the onions, garlic, chillies, and cumin seeds.

Let the onions soften, then add the tinned tomatoes and bring to a good simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes on a low heat.

Then add the corned beef and stir around gently. Now add three quarters of the bunch of coriander chopped. Stir again. Let it simmer whilst you cook your pasta. It can happily sit there for another 40 minutes or so, getting thicker and hotter.

Serve the pasta in bowls and spoon over the corned beef chilli. Add a sprinkle of chopped coriander to each bowl.

It is like no other chilli you will have tasted and everyone for whom I have cooked it has been amazed at the flavour and deliciousness of this dish.

Thanks, Bonnie, for the inspiration. A wonderful painting to go with a wonderful winter warmer of a meal!

Supper had to be swift tonight. I was hungry. I had tomatoes. Manzanos – but baby plums would be fine. In a large frying pan in olive oil I added around 150 gm of superb toms. Then a clove of garlic chopped very finely. I added three strips of smoked bacon chopped up roughly. All fried gently for about 10 minutes. Next a teaspoon of dried rosemary and a large handful of chopped fresh coriander. The pasta was popped on – rigatoni. 400 gm.

Into the tomato mix I added a tub of single cream – 250 ml.

I let it warm nicely and blend together. Pasta was then drained and added to the tomato mix. By all means sprinkle some grated parmesan on if you wish. A simple and satisfying and superb supper.

Hello! Where have you all been? I know, I know….only joking…tis me…I have been ignoring my duties here in my real life as a blogger whilst trying to earn a decent penny pretending to be grown up, struggling towards the end of the December work schedule that has, frankly, left me plum knackered. Still, I have dusted myself down, had a monumental sleep, ventured out into the real world, breathed it all in and here I am before you, ready to bare my cooking soul. Now, you will all be thinking….’he’s been at the wine again’…..which is true…but I feel liberated, shackles are off and I am rolling into Christmas Drive, foot off the break and in top gear.

So, what have I been eating – nothing exciting sadly – until a day or two ago – and I had these prawns served as a canapé.
So, I rushed home and replicated them. And it didn’t hurt!

A slither of patience is required…but all worth it. Simply add 200 gm of the best tail-on-king prawns you can afford – this for maybe 2 or 3 of you as a nibble cum starter – you could even pop a spoonful into half an avocado if you felt so inclined – then squeeze over the juice from 3 limes. Chop a deseeded red chilli finely and add this, plus a hearty bunch of fresh coriander finely chopped and a smidgen of rock salt and black pepper. Mix well and cover with cling film – pop into your fridge for at least 12 hours – 24 would make them sublime – then simply feast on them with a decadent glass or two of sauvignon blanc from Marlborough in New Zealand.

This is so zingy and sexy and fizzingly tasty that you will have to make it again a day or two later and find friends to invite round to indulge.

Pop your red peppers and garlic on a baking tray and place in hot oven until skins start to blacken – about 15 minutes.

Remove garlic to one side – place peppers in a bowl and cover with cling film. After about 10 minutes or so, remove and skin – the skin will come off easily. Doesn’t matter if odd bit of black doesn’t – all adds to the flavour! Pop in a blender – blitz and add to a deep pan. Then blitz the toms – add to the pan. Pop the garlic out of its skin and add to the…yes…you guessed….pan! Add the breadcrumbs, half the coriander and the paprika. Then the hot stock. Stir well.

Bring to a low simmer and leave for about 15 minutes to warm right through. Check seasoning – mine needed none. Stock should give it all the salt it needs. Serve with more chopped coriander and a little more bread. We had some cold salami on the side too. Wonderful, warm and a tonic for weary winter bones.

I saw this idea on a Jamie Oliver programme a while ago now – but I cannot remember which one! Anyway, this is my version using fabulously underrated shin beef – mine was from those lovely people at Parsonage Farm. I love the tactile nature of rubbing the beef in the early stages and the way this cut just melts in the mouth after serious slow cooking. We went to the pub whilst it was simmering! It suited our Sunday and slipped down a treat – highly recommended and great social food. I cooked it in a Dutch oven casserole pan – I know some folk cook it in a tagine – but I have never dabbled in those – yet. Anyway – this works and I have just finished the leftover warmed up inside a pitta for lunch today!

Mix all spice ingredients together and add to cubed beef in a bowl – with your hands run in to the beef until all the mix has been taken in. You can do this in advance if you wish.

Add a glug of olive oil to the pan – deep sided preferably – and gently pan fry the beef for about 5 minutes. Add the onion and half the coriander chopped. Fry for a further 5 minutes. Add the chickpeas and the tomatoes and then all apart form 100 gm of the stock – you are just keeping some back for later in case it starts to dry out a tad – but it shouldn’t.

Bring to the boil – stir well – reduce heat – pop some foil over then the lid and simmer for 2 hours on a low heat.

Then add the butternut squash cubes – a little more stock if needed. Put foil and lid back on.

Cook for another 1 and a half hours. Consistency should now be quite thick and the meat should be falling apart to the touch. Serve with cous cous and scatter on the remainder of the coriander.

This is a very satisfying autumnal dish – cheap too – and a great alternative to Sunday roasts!

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Me in a moment…

All I want to do is cook. The kitchen is the centre of my universe. If not there I can be found in a food shop, or writing about food or talking about food- or of course eating..and drinking. I have judged for The Great Taste Awards and I write for on line magazines. This blog is named after our back room which we turned into a little Italian restaurant called 'Alfredo's' after a much missed cat. Friends and family escape in there as often as possible. I write in there too. This site follows my cooking, my musings, my recipes. Thank you for your company! Stay a little while and enjoy!